AB1606 SYMPTOMS OF RAYNAUD’S PHENOMENON ARE NO OBSTACLE FOR BEING PHYSICALLY ACTIVE IN HEALTHY WOMEN
Authors: S. Van de Zande, K. Eijkelenkamp, A. Eman Abdulle, A. Smit, H. Zwerver, I. Van den Akker-Scheek, D. J. Mulder
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2023)

<h3>Background</h3> Women with primary Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) often experience a decreased health related quality of life (HRQoL). A physically active lifestyle could have a positive influence on vascular function and thus might improve HRQoL in women with primary RP. <h3>Objectives</h3> To quantify the amount and type of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour, as well as HRQoL and stress, in women with primary Raynaud's phenomenon (RP), and to compare this to the behaviour of women without RP from a large population-based cohort (Lifelines). <h3>Methods</h3> The connective tissue disease (CTD) screening questionnaire data from the Lifelines database that was available of women ≥ 18 years old was used. This questionnaire consists of 30 questions to detect possible CTD's. A total of 19820 women, 929 with RP and 18891 without RP, all without other comorbidities were included. By using questionnaires from the Lifelines database other patient characteristics were retrieved including physical activity and sedentary behaviour, HRQoL and stress. <h3>Results</h3> Women with RP reported 300 min/week minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), which was more than women without RP reported (255 min/week). This difference was mainly due to a difference in vigorous activities (p&lt;.001). 74.3% of women with RP complied to the health enhancing PA guidelines (69.5% in the group of women without RP, p=.003). Time spent sedentary by women with RP was 540 min/week, which was comparable to sedentary time of women without RP (540 min/week, p=.886). Women with RP scored lower on almost all eight domains of the QoL questionnaire (p&lt;.05), except for physical functioning (p=.181). Regarding stress levels, the List of Threatening Experiences (LTE) showed no differences between groups (p=.226), however, the Long-term Difficulties Inventory (LDI) showed a higher stress level in the RP group (p&lt;.001). Furthermore, women with RP were significantly younger (p&lt;.001), had a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) (p&lt;.001), a lower waist-hip ratio (p&lt;.001), had a lower amount of packyears (p&lt;.001) and a healthier diet score (p&lt;.001) compared to the women without RP. <h3>Conclusion</h3> This is the first study to structurally investigate PA in a large population cohort of patients with RP. Most women with RP report they spent a sufficient amount of time on moderate to vigorous PA and thus comply to health enhancing physical activity guidelines. The PA behaviour of women with RP seems comparable to that of women without RP, showing that RP is no obstacle for being physically active. However, HRQoL was lower in women with RP; more research is needed to elucidate the relation between PA and HRQoL in this patient group, preferably using objective measurement instruments to assess PA. <h3>Acknowledgements</h3> The Lifelines biobank initiative has been made possible by subsidies from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, the University Medical Center Groningen, the University Groningen, and the Northern Provinces of the Netherlands. There was no funding for this manuscript. <h3>Disclosure of Interests</h3> None Declared.